The Impact of Inter-Basin Water Transfer Schemes on Hydropower Generation in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River during Extreme Drought Years

Fan Wen, Mingxiang Yang (), Wenhai Guan, Jixue Cao, Yibo Zou, Xuan Liu, Hejia Wang and Ningpeng Dong ()
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Fan Wen: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China
Mingxiang Yang: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China
Wenhai Guan: China Three Gorges Corporation, Yichang 443000, China
Jixue Cao: China Three Gorges Corporation, Yichang 443000, China
Yibo Zou: China Three Gorges Corporation, Yichang 443000, China
Xuan Liu: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China
Hejia Wang: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China
Ningpeng Dong: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: The Yangtze River Basin experiences frequent extreme heatwaves and prolonged droughts, resulting in a tight supply demand balance of electricity and negatively impacting socioeconomic production. Meanwhile, ongoing inter-basin water diversion projects are planned that will divert approximately 25.263 billion cubic meters of water from the Yangtze River Basin annually, which may further affect the power supply in the region. In this study, the CLHMS-LSTM model, a land-surface hydrological model coupled with a long short-term memory (LSTM)-based reservoir operation simulation model, is used to investigate the impact of water diversions on the power generation of the Yangtze River mainstream reservoirs under extreme drought conditions. Two different water diversion schemes are adopted in this study, namely the minimum water deficit scheme (Scheme 1) and minimum construction cost scheme (Scheme 2). The results show that the land surface–hydrological model was able to well characterize the hydrological characteristics of the Yangtze River mainstem, with a daily scale determination coefficient greater than 0.85. The LSTM reservoir operation simulation model was able to simulate the reservoir releases well, with the determination coefficient greater than 0.93. The operation of the water diversion projects will result in a reduction in the power generation of the Yangtze River mainstem by 14.97 billion kilowatt-hours. As compared to the minimum construction cost scheme (Scheme 2), the minimum water deficit scheme (Scheme 1) reduces the loss of power generation by 1.38 billion kilowatt-hours. The research results provide new ideas for the decision-making process for the inter-basin water diversion project and the formulation of water diversion plans, which has implications for ensuring the security of the power supply in the water diversion area.

Keywords: LSTM; land-surface hydrological model; water diversion; power generation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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